Remember the guy in a duck suit sent last year by GOP gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino to harass frontrunner Andrew Cuomo for his supposed unwillingness to address “vital policy questions” like Obamacare?

I rest my case.

On the heels of a GOP-commissioned poll that shows the NY-9 special election a dead heat, with Bob Turner and David Weprin tied at 42 percent in a district that has an overwhelming Democratic enrollment edge, the Weprin campaign has decided to send a “Queens magician named Wendy Wizard” to “endorse” Turner outside his Belle Harbour Yacht Club fundraiser tonight. From the Weprin press release:

“Tea Party Turner’s smoke and mirror budget tricks require a level of magical ability that only the greatest illusionists have mastered,” Wizard said from her underground lair in an undisclosed part of Queens while stroking a black cat named Oolong.

“I’m proud to support my fellow magician’s candidacy because I know that Tea Party Turner will pull the money we need to save Medicare right out of thin air.”

This a riff off a line in yesterday’s New York Times editorial endorsing Weprin, in which the Gray Lady’s ed board opined:

“Mr. Turner argues that the federal budget needs to be cut by as much as a third. He also wants to lower taxes, especially on capital gains. He insists that that would not mean reducing benefits for those on Medicare and Social Security. That would take a magician, not a businessman.”

UPDATE: A reader notes the Turner campaign is not above gimmicks, either. A Turner supporter broke out the old duck suit to heckle Weprin at his fundraiser last night with US Sen. Joe Lieberman and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver. The issue: Weprin’s abrupt decision to pull out of Monday night’s debate, citing Irene.

UPDATE2: Turner campaign spokesman Bill O’Reilly sends this gem: “”The Weprin Campaign has become increasingly bizarre. I suggest they head back to Hogwarts and regroup.”

I would be remiss if I didn’t note that props have been employed by even some of our best-known politicians.

Remember back in 2000 when then-former First Lady Hillary Clinton was first running for the US Senate in New York? Well, none other than Howard Wolfson (now a deputy mayor in the Bloomberg administration) showed up along with a Democratic State Committee member dressed as Uncle Sam at an event held by her GOP opponent, Rick Lazio, to taunt him with her property tax returns and demand that he follow her lead.

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